Prepper Book Festival 10: Playful Preparedness and Survival Mindset

A couple of months ago when Tim Young approached me about his book Playful Preparedness: Prepare Your Children-For Life, I withheld judgment because historically, Backdoor Survival readers did not seem to be interested in children’s books. I did want to keep and open mind however and when my review copy of the book arrived, I knew we had a major score on our hands.

So what is this book about? It is a well written handbook of 26 fun and engaging games to be played with your children. The reality, however, is that in my opinion these games can also be played with other adults. With names such as “I-Spy”, “Picnic Attack” and “Lost In Space”, who can resist?

Each game is designed to teach preparedness skills, situational awareness, and survival mindset. The “Picnic Attack” game, as an example, is a spur of the moment picnic designed to simulate an evacuation. It requires a bug out bag, a picnic spot, and some survival food. During the course of the game, you will leave home, go to the designated spot, eat the food. During the process, you go through the items in the B.O.B. and either use them, test them, or discuss their purpose.

See what I mean? Adults can have fun doing this as well, and this is just one example of many.

Last week Tim answered his initial round of interview questions in Prepper Book Festival 10: Start Prepping! He is back again today for a second interview plus to giveaway a copy of both Playful Preparedness and The Survival Mindset.

Enjoy the encore interview then be sure to check in below to learn about the giveaway.

An Interview with Tim Young, Author of Playful Preparedness and The Survival Mindset

Given your background, knowledge and experience, what do you feel are the three most important survival or prepping skills?

The answer depends on what the survival situation is, of course. But in general, I’d say it’s critical to have:

3. The ability to protect yourself, which means shelter as well as personal security.

Do you feel totally prepared and if not, what prep area concerns you the most?

Yes—but.

We feel totally prepared in terms of all that’s important to live—sourcing food, water, shelter, knowing how to hunt, grow and preserve. The ability to barter and defend and so on. However, our biggest weakness, like that of many I suppose, is in the area of catastrophic or emergency medical care. Sure, we make our own medicines and have QuickClots, Israeli Bandages and all that, but that’s not the same as having the know how for emergency surgery and stored antibiotics.

For that reason among others, I hope we keep the system alive and well.

To what extent does your family participate in your personal preparedness efforts?

It’s something my wife and I are equally committed to and passionate about. It’s so second nature to us that we really don’t even think about it any more. The notion of prepping is something that non-preppers or new preppers think about—once you get immersed in it, it just becomes a way of life.

Our extended family is like pretty much everyone else; relatively unprepared. We’ve had some success influencing them but honestly don’t try that hard. Prepping via preaching often backfires, so we just try to lead by example.

What is your favorite survival or pepping book? (It can be fiction or non-fiction.)

The Road. I’m sure many of your readers have seen the movie, which is great, but it doesn’t convey the same poetry as Cormac McCarthy’s words do.

The Giveaway

To enter the giveaway, you need to utilize the Rafflecopter form below. Select one or more of the options after signing in using your email account or Facebook, the choice is yours. The best way to start is by clicking on “Free Entry for Everyone”. After that, each option you select represents an additional entry. There are a number of different options so pick and choose or select them all.

The deadline is 6:00 PM Pacific Tuesday with the winner notified by email and announced on the Rafflecopter in the article. Please note that the winner must claim their book within 48 hours or an alternate will be selected.

Note: This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States.

The Final Word

Who would have thought that playing games would teach so much about situational awareness?

These games are not fear-mongering or doomer-porn, but rather fun activities that adults can play with their families or amongst each other. I personally think they would be a gentle introduction to prepping for those that are reluctant or fearful of getting started.

The trend toward learning to prep by playing games is a good one and I hope to see more of the same going forward.

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye

You don’t like to think about it, but deep down you know it can happen. Disaster can strike without warning, leaving your family without water, food, or electricity, and without medical or police support. How will you survive when that happens? How will you protect your family from threats of violence?

Buying insurance, writing wills, getting our teeth cleaned, and saving for retirement are just a few of the precautions we routinely take to mitigate risks, but most people fail to prepare for what’s most important.

They fail to prepare for their own survival.
With 91% of Americans living in places at a moderate-to-high risk of disasters and with all of us dependent on a very fragile life-support system, it’s time for you to take preparedness seriously.

When you read this book you will

understand the 27 disasters you’re likely to face why some people perish when others don’t, and you’ll know how to ensure your family survives.

master situational awareness and the survival mindset you need to avoid becoming a victim of violence.

know when to stay, when to bug out, and how to implement an evacuation plan.

learn the best non-firearm options for self-defense.

discover the best ways to generate electricity, store water and food, and handle sanitation and medical care on your own.

Bargain Bin: For your convenience, here is a list of all of the books in the current Backdoor Survival Prepper Book Festival as well as a link to the book mentioned by today’s author.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. If you have not read the book (or seen the movie) please do. Highly recommended!

For over 25 years Emergency Essentials has been providing the highest quality preparedness products at great prices. Plus, each month they feature sales that quite honestly are fantastic. This month give the gift preparedness.

Need something from Amazon (and who doesn’t)? I earn a small commission from purchases made when you begin your Amazon shopping experience here. You still get great Amazon service and the price is the same, no matter what.

Amazon has a feature called Shop Amazon – Most Wished For Items. This is an easy tool for finding products that people are ‘wishing” for and in this way you know what the top products are. All you need to do is select the category from the left hand side of the screen.

Comments

Most people don’t take the time to train up their kids – we might not make it and leave them behind. Very important to make sure they are ready in any situation. The need to provide, water, food, security and shelter are of utmost importance. Looks like this book would be a great help to do it in a way that they could enjoy! Keep Looking UP

I appreciate your take on the book in that it’s for all rather than a few. I don’t have “kids” anymore, but there’s always going to be the little girl within me. She likes to come out and play often! Thanks for the review and thoughts….and a chance at winning a copy!

Both of these books would be great to have. Both subjects are things I have been thinking about recently. I now have 4 kids (twins in November) and ia daunting task trying to figure out how to prepare them and keep them sage if something bad were to happen.
I also follow GrayWolf Survival.

I follow your site and one other regularly (DH says religiously LOL). I also hit The Survival Mom and the Urban survival site and SurvivorPedia at least once every week or so. A couple others every once in a while.
I have to say I was just wondering how to get my grand children and their cousins in tune with their crazy grandmother/Grand aunt and this popped up. This sounds like a really fun book to use and teach them with.

Sounds like a great way to get family or friends interested and hopefully thinking. We are trying to teach our four year old granddaughter things already while in the garden, picking and knowing wild weeds, making bread from scratch and her watching what is around her.

Both Books would be an Excellent Resource for the Family and Community at large if it would be Implemented. The Children’s Book would Provide a Great Alternative of Preparing them in a way that would not bring unnecessary anxiety while Preparing and Giving them a Right Mindset, Attitude and Resources to Meet Most or Even Every Challenge they may Meet. I Have the Benefit of your Site Back Door Survival, Urban Survival, The Survival Mom, Mom With a Prep, Grow Your Own Food, Jason Beyond Off Grid and Melissa K. Norris. Happy to Have the Opportunity of the Great Resources and Insight Made Available from These Great Sites.

Just a few of sites. Beside you, I visit The Apartment Prepper on a regular basis to get some good ideas on utilizing small spaces. We don’t live in an apartment but we do live in a house that’s not much bigger than an apartment.

I subscribe to/follow/like on facebook quite a few prepper websites, but this is really the only one I read and interact with regularly. There’s a women’s prepper page on facebook that I like a lot, but that’s mainly women giving each other advice. So I’m relying on you. 🙂

I read a few daily, including yours and Preparing for SHTF, both great for the free survival Kindle books. Thank you! I get several email newsletters from some and read as I have time. I also have several show up in my RSS feed and only have time to read the article titles, but a topic interests me, I’ll bookmark it for later.

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MEET GAYE

I'm Gaye, just an ordinary gal trying to make sense of our changing world. I am addicted to prepping, DIY projects, adult coloring books, and ballroom dancing. I live what I call a strategic life and believe you should too. Everyone needs to prepare for the worst and live for the best. Won't you join me?

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